


Up is Down

by Soywha



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Future, Angst, Angst and Humor, Anthropology, Attempt at Humor, Awkward Jean, Blood and Gore, Dorks, M/M, Mesoamerican Mythology, Multi, Near Future, Popol Vuh - Freeform, Recreational Drug Use, Reiner can't speak Spanish, Trauma, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-03-18 17:49:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3578448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soywha/pseuds/Soywha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>2031, Trost University.<br/>Jean Kirstein just wanted to finish his degree and make a name for himself. A mysterious donor and the trip of a lifetime put a stop to that. An archaeology trip gone very wrong, or very right. </p>
<p>Deep in the jungle there lies a doorway to Xibalba. The year is coming, the cycle is ending. The Sacrifice is needed and the Champions are called.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sangria and Hieroglyphs

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, hello. I've been working on this for quite a while now; planning took some time, but its here. I saw a lack of college aus with these majors, and since these are my fields I thought I'd give it a shot. 
> 
> Any questions, concerns, comments, or more feel free to stop by my tumblr; captainsoywha.tumblr.com 
> 
> ~Enjoy

Acceptance was a term often used in his schools growing up.

 

Sure, it was a good lesson for kids to learn, but over time the definition become a little skewed. Instead of what it should be it had morphed into, accept everyone as long as they are like us.

 

Unfortunately Jean was never like them.

 

On his first day of first grade, Jean had taken a book outside with him to read at recess. All the other boys were playing soccer and all the girls were playing on the swing set; pointed glares and whispered words followed. Jean didn’t read the next day at recess. Instead he chased after soccer balls and always got picked last for the team.

 

When he got to middle school all the other boys would parade around the locker room half naked bragging about their incoming abs. Jean would scurry off and change in the bathroom stall so no one would see his soft, chubby tummy that covered any trace of muscle. He begged his mother to stop cooking so heartily and put himself on a strict diet. The following year he was showing off his abs as well.

 

His freshman year of high school he was placed at the back of the classroom, from there he could almost see the board if he squinted just enough. One trip to the doctor had him in glasses. Three weeks of ridicule and he was hiding his glasses in his backpack while pretending he had 20/20 vision like everyone else.

 

Yes he knew he shouldn’t give in to peer pressure so easily, but it was better this way.

 

Everyone seemed to see everything in terms of black and white. And since Jean almost always happened to be in the greyscale he could never seem to wrap his young mind around the fact that no one else seemed to see all the other options. It was easier to just pretend he was in the majority than be ridiculed in the minority. 

 

No one saw the grey areas, so it was easier to just stay out of them.

 

Early in his senior year of high school, Jean sat in the councilor’s office for his yearly mandatory meeting. The blond couldn’t help shifting uncomfortably under the old councilor’s gaze. It was time for the college talk.

 

“So Jean, what are your plans for next year?” the old man asked. Jean knew what he should say; what everyone else had told the man. Business. Accounting. Pre-Law. Pre-Med. But for the first time Jean couldn’t make himself agree.

 

“I don’t know.”

 

After the quiet admittance, he’d been given a pamphlet and shooed out of the office.

 

 That night Jean slipped on his glasses and read through the thin pamphlet; really it was more of a list of different majors and a small description of some basic beginner’s courses.

 

Reading through the list of ‘ology’s, one caught his eye in particular. Several hours of googling later, Jean had a decision.

 

The next day he burst into the councilor’s office and after a quick explanation the old man filed for a copy of Jean’s transcript to be sent to Trost University.

 

Jean completed the admissions application before the day was out; a smile adorned his face as he checked off his major.

 

Anthropology.

 

\---------

 

There always seems to be an unusual rupture in the natural flow of physics in early morning classes.  Where it takes an hour for a minute to pass and the droning of the professor seems especially slow and monotone. Jean Kirstein was caught in such a rupture.

 

Unfortunately there was no other time to take the class, and as it was required for his major Jean just had to grin and bear it. Or scowl and show up. Really it was essentially the same thing for the blond.

 

Normally the lectures weren’t too terrible, but it was Friday and he was so close to being done with the week. All he wanted to do was crawl back into bed and sleep until dinnertime.

 

That, sadly, wasn’t an option today.

 

School had to have two modes for Jean. He was either extremely busy and everything was due all at once, or he had absolutely nothing to do. Today just happened to be the former.

 

It’d been three years since he first decided to go into Anthropology, a decision that he did not regret. Even if it meant he had to spend his Fridays swamped with work.

 

At least anthropology students acknowledged and accepted the greyscale. Even if it meant he had to deal with some weirdos.

 

And though Jean bitched about his amount of schoolwork, he was happy putting the effort in.

 

The blond’s thoughts had drifted from lecture a while back, now his thoughts were focused on what work he needed to do after class let out.

 

More specifically he was sorting his work into two categories; ‘absolutely must be done today’ and ‘it can wait ‘til later’.

 

He was filing most of his assignments under the latter category; it was Friday and early, sue him.  

 

In the end there was really only one thing that he had to get done today. Just some sketches for a thesis; sketches he’d been working on for far too long now.

 

But whatever, he’d get them done tonight.

 

He glanced back at the clock relieved that time seemed to be flowing normal again. Just a few more minutes before he was free.

 

Then it would be time for his favorite thing about this class.

 

Sure the early class sucked, but it did have one good thing going for it. Namely being right across the hall from the archaeology lab.

 

The very same archaeology lab that happened to be run by the hottest graduate student in the anthro department on Friday mornings.

 

His lecturer wrapped up two minutes early; smiling like it was a godsend.

 

While everyone else threw their stuff in their bag and bolted for the door, Jean took his time packing up his things.

 

He wanted to savor his time in the hallway without being rushed down the hall by a crowd of students.

 

And no it wasn’t creepy at all.

 

He slipped his bag onto his back and made his way out of the room. The hallways was empty as Jean moved from the doorway of his classroom to the bench to the left against the wall.

 

From the bench he could see into the lab, and more importantly where the grad student was sitting.

 

Jean took a deep breath.

 

This was it. He was gonna do it. Right here. Right now. Jean Kirstein was going to get up walk himself into that lab and flirt with Hottie McHotpants. The freckled wonder.

 

He was going to walk straight in there, hop up on the desk. Pull the other’s book away and seductively throw it over his shoulder before leaning down and kissing him square on the…

 

“Hey Seabiscuit!”

 

Dammit. Jean felt his face erupt as Hottie McHotpants looked up from his book and out into the hallway. Red lights were flashing in Jean’s head; abort, abort.

 

The blond pulled out his phone and pretended to not hear Eren Jaeger coming down the hallway towards him.

 

Why him? He was a good person, for the most part. Why did Eren just have to be going into archaeology as well? He was suspicious it was just to spite him; the blond had chosen the subfield two semesters before Eren did.

 

He felt his cheeks getting hotter as Eren got closer.

 

“Hey! Black Beauty; I know you heard me!” Eren accused smacking Jean on the shoulder. He was rewarded with an icy glare.

 

“Hi Jean.” A softer voice called out from behind the brunet. At least Jean was being given this small grace.

 

“Hey.” He returned sitting up a bit straighter, after all Hottie McHotpants was probably still watching. A quick glance back to the lab showed that no, he was not; in fact his freckled nose was stuffed back in his book.

 

Ouch. Jean could hear his ego cracking.

 

Eren glanced over his shoulder to see what Jean was spacing out over. A wide grin broke out over his face as he made his way into the lab.

 

Before Jean could protest the action, Eren was calling out “Oi Marco!” before spewing out a mixture of English and Spanish.

 

The grad student, who Jean now highly suspected was named Marco, lit up.

 

And now Jean felt his ego breaking.

 

Of course the guy Jean had been admiring from afar for two semesters would be friends with Eren. Even better, a Spanish speaking friend of Eren. It was like the brunet just loved to kick Jean out of conversations by speaking Spanish.

 

_News flash Jaeger, you aren’t even fluent._ Maybe Jean would make a banner. 

 

Armin called his attention away from the two Spanish boys.

 

“Are you working on your thesis today?”

 

“Uh yeah. I’m almost done with the calendric portion; I just have one more long date to sketch out before I get Dr. Zoe to check it.” Jean rubbed the back on his neck as he spoke. As proud as he was of his work, he was still embarrassed to talk about it. Eren made sure to remind him plenty just how much of a nerd he was for willingly choosing to attempt a senior thesis.

 

But he was pretty sure the brunet was just jealous.

 

Armin hummed in response, “Then you just have the mythology portion left, right?” he asked

 

“Yeah, but that’s the part that shouldn’t take me as long.” He’d been emerged in all the mythology stuff for a couple years now, and he knew all the ins and outs of Mesoamerica mythology by now. It was his specialty.

 

He chatted with Armin for a bit longer before he had to take off. Just a few inquiries about the other’s day for now. It wasn’t like they wouldn’t be seeing each other soon enough.

 

“Bye Jean, we’ll see you at home.” Armin called after him before going to join in the Spanish conversation.

 

Jean sighed and started down the hall, he hoped they switched back to English by the time they got home. He was not in the mood for another live action Spanish soap-opera night of Eren following him around dramatically speaking Spanish. Two nights in a row was too much.

 

\---------

 

Rooming with Eren Jaeger had been a choice of necessity over comfort. When Armin, his roommate from freshman year, had asked him to move in with him and two others Jean had jumped at the chance to have an apartment and be off campus.

 

But all good things come with a price. And for Jean, that just happened to be rooming with Eren.

 

The apartment itself was nice, three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Of the four of them it had never been a question that Mikasa would get her own room, but the remaining two rooms had been a tossup.

 

In the end, Armin had won the dice roll; as a coin toss would have been unfair with three of them. So each picked two numbers off the die; Jean with one and six, Eren with two and three, and Armin with four and five. Mikasa had even humored them by being the impartial die thrower. In the end a lucky number four had earned Armin the illustrious single bedroom.

 

The arrangement only lasted about a week.

 

Then it was decided that Eren would be much better off rooming with Armin. While Jean was happy about getting his own room, he still felt a bit guilty and he insisted that he and Armin switch rooms instead of Eren simply moving out. Eren bitched and whined about that being so much more complicated, Jean refused to budge. He’d measured both rooms when the others had been in class and wanted to make sure he would be getting the smaller one. Though when called on it, he adamantly denied it; instead claiming he wanted a room that didn’t smell like Jaeger.

 

The two still fought more often than not, but it seemed to be more of a principle thing rather than true anger. Even so, their fights seemed to be a blend of anthropological theory differences and random roommate grievances.

 

One moment they’d be yelling about which migration theory was plausible, and the next about the dishes left in the sink. A weird mix, but it worked for the two. And as long as Armin and Mikasa weren’t being dragged into every single fight everyone was happy.

 

And even better, after a few months the two boy’s relationship had morphed from hatred to a weird pseudo-friendship. That didn’t mean for a second they stopped fighting though.

 

Somehow along the line their apartment had been elected as the study group meeting place. Maybe it was because all four residents had a connection to anthropology in one way or another; or maybe Connie and Sasha just liked the prospect of free snacks and occasionally weed.

 

Jean strongly suspected the latter.

 

Either way here they were. Two-thirds of the usual study group was there at least; Mikasa was volunteering at the forensics lab and Armin had said he had plans. _Whatever that meant._

 

But Jean, Eren, Sasha, and Connie were still gathered in the living room trying to finish some work up before the weekend was over. Jean was curled up at one end of the couch taking up about a third and Eren was spread across the rest. Connie and Sasha had made spots on the floor so they could use the coffee table as a desk, and they were closer to the snacks that way.

 

They’d all been in a comfortable silence for the past twenty minutes or so. The only noise was the muted tones of some sport on the TV in the background because Connie swore up and down that the noise helped him study. It wasn’t at all that he wanted to periodically check up on the game.

 

“Literally none of these colors look like any soil I have ever seen ever.” Connie whined. And the silence was broken.

 

Jean snickered. He’d thought the same thing when he had suffered through the intro to archaeology lab. Munsell books were just evil. Suddenly he was very glad that he’d taken the class already and was done, even though he’d taken it alone.

 

Sasha leaned over Connie’s shoulder, “Hmmmm that one.” She said pointing to the book.

 

“But that’s not even close!” Connie retorted. Jean checked out at that point, he’d heard this fight three times already. It was only funny for so long.

 

The blonde looked back down to his sketchpad and resumed his work; carefully adding strokes to a page of glyphs. He was trying to concentrate on his work, but he couldn’t help but notice Eren’s feet getting dangerously close to his part of the couch.

 

_Pick your battles Jean._

 

The thought was better in theory than practice.

“Get on your own side Jaeger!” He barked to the brunet. Eren just stared at him blankly for a moment before grinning widely and stretching out further, his feet now completely in Jean’s bubble, even brushing against his side.

 

Jean glared at the other over his sketchbook.

 

“You dick.”

 

“The fuck you call me Horsefa…”

 

The fight was cut off by Connie, “Does no one care about me failing this arch lab!”

 

“No!” Jean and Eren replied at once.

 

“Well at least they agree about something.” Sasha cut in.

 

Jean took Sasha’s interjection as his moment to strike. Darting his hand out quickly, the blond grabbed his roommate’s big toe and gave a sharp tug. The digit in question popped loudly.

 

Eren let out an ungodly noise, an odd mix of a squeal and a squawk, before yanking his leg back forcefully. The moment ended badly for him.

 

It caused his pinky toe to pop as well, as Jean had grabbed onto the toe before Eren’s foot left his bubble. And as Eren’s leg snapped back onto his side of the couch, the momentum made him fly back quicker and hard than anticipated. Slamming his head on the opposite armrest.

 

Fighting Jaeger without actually hurting him had been a challenge at first. But Jean had always been good at adapting, and the blond quickly learned popping joints was one of Eren’s weaknesses.

 

“Ha! Serves you right!”

 

It was Eren’s turn to glare as he rubbed his head.

 

“Oy! Eren don’t kill _Guero_ now!”  Connie amusedly called from the floor. At some point during the madness he had laid down, giving up on his lab for now.

 

“You know Connie, half the time I still can’t decide if they want to kill each other or fuck each other.” Sasha commented around a mouthful of bugles.

 

Jean’s face and neck heated up at her comment.

 

Connie’s laughing drowned out any protests from either boy on the couch. “Ha! That’s my girl; nice one Sash!” He gasped out leaning up to high-five her.

 

Jean huffed and kicked out his foot, catching Connie in the shoulder. The resulting groan of pain brought a smirk to the blond’s face.

 

Jean turned his attention back to his sketchbook. He really did need to keep working on the glyphs he’d been drawing; he’d just finished 4 Imix and now he was beginning on 9 Sip.

 

He yawned deciding that after he finished the next two glyphs then he could be done for the night. Super easy, Right?

 

 With the combined efforts of Thing 1, Thing 2, and Jaeger those last couple glyphs had taken him three hours. It was only with the grace of Mikasa getting back that saved him in the end.

 

Once she was back Jean snuck back to his room to finish up his work.

 

He was just finishing up when he heard the Wonder Twins leaving and Armin returning.

 

Good, that meant the apartment would fall into a somewhat quiet lull. He could hear shuffling around outside his room as the other three occupants settled into their own spaces.

 

Jean flipped his sketchbook closed and opened his laptop. The machine woke from sleep mode quickly; he opened a new tab after the internet reconnected and typed in his email.

 

His inbox wasn’t too full, but there was one message flagged as important sitting at the top. And it was from the department head. Great.

 

_-Good Evening_

_Your presence is requested on Thursday evening at 6pm sharp in the St. Maria Liberal Arts building, room_

_311 for an important meeting. More information will be given then._

_Erwin Smith, PhD_

_Senior Lecturer, Archaeology_

_Anthropology_

_Trost University_

 

Jean reread the email three times. Dr. Smith always had a knack for sounding cryptic and enticing in his emails.

 

Great. Now Jean had to worry for the next four days about the e-mail. Though while his stomach was going to be in knots until the meeting, it did make him feel like a special snowflake.

 

“DID ANYONE ELSE GET THE WEIRD EMAIL FROM SMITH?!” 

 

God dammit Jaeger.

 

At least now he was absolutely positive that this meeting wasn’t anything too important. Considering Eren had been invited as well.

 

Great. If Eren had gotten the email that probably meant it was something bad. Jean was probably in trou..

 

“Yeah!”

 

“Me too!”

 

Shit, did the whole department get the email?

 

Jean sat back in his desk chair with a pout, he didn’t feel so special anymore.

 

\---------

 

Jean was out of breath by the time he reached the Maria building. He pulled out his phone to find he had three minutes to get inside and find the meeting room.

 

“Shit.” He murmured, hurrying to get inside and up the nearest stairs.

 

On Thursdays Drawing 101 was his final class of the day.  It just so happened that visual art classes were held in the Rose Garden Gallery in the Trinity building; which was clear across campus. And today his art professor, Pixis, wouldn’t let the class leave until they had made a breakthrough on their portraits.

 

Needless to say Jean had spent way too much time drawing a model’s penis today. The one part of the portrait he normally skimmed on.

 

“Fuckin’ drawing class…ohh god I got to go to the gym more.” He huffed out as he hit the second floor landing. It was more of a formality though; Jean knew damn well he wasn’t going to the gym.

 

One more flight of stairs and a short hallway and he was standing outside room 311. He took three deep breaths to give the illusion that he wasn’t as out of shape as he really was and headed inside.

 

“Finally! Glad you could make it Kirstein!”

 

God dammit Jaeger.

 

Jean’s face burned; a quick glance around the room let him know that they’d all been waiting on him. Well shit. He moved to the nearest empty seat quickly.

 

Maria 311 just happened to be a small meeting room; the wall opposite the door held a projector screen that currently showed the blue screen of death. The rest of the room was occupied by a large table that took up just a little too much space to be comfortable. Out of the fifteen seats in the room just one was empty; he was situated between Connie and Armin at the table.

 

“Hey _Guero_ , nice of you to come.” Connie whispered to him as he sat down.

 

Jean shot him a glare, “Shut up Connie.” Excellent comeback; one point to Kirstein.

 

Professor Smith had gotten up to fiddle with a laptop near the projector screen; Jean used the small lull to examine the others in the room.

 

Everyone looked vaguely familiar; Armin, Mikasa, and Eren sat to his left. Between Armin and Mikasa sat another girl; Jean had seen her with Armin a few times, but never this close before. She was small with a sharp nose and piercing blue eyes.

 

Jean made a mental note to not get on her bad side, or her good side; whichever was worse, he couldn’t be sure.

 

On his left were Connie and Sasha; then at the head of the table was Erwin, who had vacated his seat for the moment.

 

The other half of the table was far less familiar. Dr. Ackerman and Dr. Zoe sat at the far end of the table across from Eren and Mikasa. Jean knew both professors to varying degrees; his freshman year he had made the mistake to register for Dr. Zoe’s 9am ‘Intro to Biological Anthropology’ course. Between the earliness of the class and their teaching methods, there had been much regret.

 

Though after spending much of his Directed Study course needing their guidance; Jean decided he didn’t hate them too terribly. It was a step in the right direction at least.

 

Dr. Ackerman however, he only knew in reputation; thankfully he had stayed clear from anything relating to geography and therefore out of the clutches of the short man.

 

Beside the two doctors were two guys Jean had seen in the anthro building, but never in any of his classes. So he had to guess they were grad students, or severely lost all the time. The former was most likely his best bet.

 

The taller of the two was currently bent over talking quietly to Dr. Zoe; definitely an anthropology student, no one willingly spoke to Dr. Zoe otherwise unless desperate. The blond next to him was leaned back in his chair looking throughly bored.

 

Jean snorted quietly, the blond could’ve gone either way on his assumptions list.

 

Jean eyed the big man for a few more seconds before carrying on to the last three people at the table.

 

A petite girl sat at the very end with a serve looking chick next to her that was currently talking in hushed tones to a…

 

_Hot damn._

 

How in the hell had Jean missed him.

 

Directly across the table from him sat the freckled Jesus of the Trost University’s Anthropology Department.

 

The tips on Jean’s ears started to heat up once more; well shit, here he was making an idiot of himself once more less than two after his arrival.

 

And Jean just couldn’t stop mindlessly gawking at him. Somehow before the meeting was done and over, Jean was going to put himself in the world record books for ‘most awkward hominid that ever walked the earth’. He may have to share that award with an australopithecine though, but details.

 

For the first time in his life Jean could say he was saved by Dr. Smith.

 

Professor Smith had finally won his battle with technology and the PowerPoint he had been struggling with clicked on. Jean studied the map that had popped up closely; it didn’t seem unusual in any way, just a simple map of Central America.

 

Though there was a small circle drawn at the borders of Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico. He quirked an eyebrow and looked back at Dr. Smith.

 

“Good Evening!” The professor greeted the small gathering, “If you’re unaware I’m Dr. Erwin Smith.” Jean assumed he was speaking to the handful of students that were definitely not anthro majors.

 

“Now I’m sure you are all confused as to why you are here exactly. Everyone in this room has been hand selected by either myself, Dr. Ackerman, or Dr. Zoe for a new research expedition. Each of you has displayed skills that the three of us have deemed important and necessary for our field work.”

 

_Then why the fuck is Jaeger here?_

 

Erwin turned back to the PowerPoint and gestured to the projected map, “Our site is located here on the Yucatan Peninsula, in the Maya Lowlands. While the site itself is in the state Campeche of Mexico, we will still be close to the borders of Belize and Guatemala.”

 

Several people flinched, Jean along with them, Professor Smith always had a knack for utterly butchering the Spanish language.

 

Though the professor continued without pausing seemingly oblivious to the flinching, “We don’t know much on the site itself, but considering its location we assume it is Mayan.”

 

Now that was unusual. Two semesters ago, in the Intro to Archaeology, Jean had to endure the near constant reminders of how important prior research and extensive surveying was to any field school. Dr. Smith was not the type to just skip these procedures lightly.

 

“This particular dig is…a bit unorthodox...” Dr. Smith admitted as he turned to face the group.

 

Eren’s hand shot up, “What exactly do you mean by that sir?” the brunet asked before the professor could call on him.

 

“He means a very rich, very mysterious donor has contacted the university and is completely funding our expedition, brat.” Dr. Ackerman supplied from his spot at the table. “And this donor wants us there at the beginning of the field season with or without prior research.” The Geography professor sat back and crossed his arms tighter, a wonder of physics if Jean said so himself.

 

“Um, sir? Doesn’t the field season begin in mid-May?” Armin asked quietly.

 

“Yes”

 

No one moved for a few moments. It was early March and they were expected to be field ready in a little under two months. The big blond across the table let out a low whistle and sank back deeper in his chair.

 

“So this donor has given the University a substantial amount of money and now we have to go or else our funding gets cut?” he asked.

 

Professor Ackerman’s only response was an aggravated “tch”. Jean could only assume that meant yes.

 

Professor Smith clicked through some more slides. Most showed basic geography and climate information. And some maps of other known sites in the area.

 

Jean couldn’t help but notice the lack of site pictures on Dr. Smith’s PowerPoint. Normally the person who stumbled upon the ruin or whatnot snapped a few shitty iPhone pics before running to tell someone what they found.

 

“Dr. Smith?” he waited until he had the man’s attention before tentatively continuing, “Are there any pictures of the site?”

 

The professor frowned, “Ah. That would be another problem. The site was not found by someone, our donor has claimed that there is something there and wants us to excavate.”

 

Again the explanation was followed by silence.

 

His freckled majesty was the one to speak first, “So there could just not be anything there?”

 

“Correct.”

 

Dr. Zoe had been so uncharacteristically quiet up to this point, Jean had almost forgotten they had been there.

 

 “But this is what it means to be a scientist! To go into the unknown and discover what has been lost!” They exclaimed slamming their hands on the table.

 

“Ah. Y-yes well.” Dr. Smith responded before giving a few more sparse details and promising another meeting just as soon as they had more information.

 

They were dismissed soon after. Jean spared a look down at his phone, 6:15.

 

Wow, it had taken a grand total of fifteen minutes to transform the course of his academic career.

 

He decided to worry about it after dinner. Tonight was definitely a pizza night.

 

\---------

 

The study group was on edge the following night. There was little discussion about homework as everyone was too excited about the impending trip. So it was the perfect night to bust out the alcohol and have a smoke.

 

Armin had returned home earlier with a good portion of some prime stuff.

 

Jean always thought it was weird that Armin, out of everyone, was the roommate with the best hookup. But hey, as long as he remembered ‘sharing is caring’ Jean was not going to complain.

 

Before anyone took a hit however, it was decided that snacks and booze were in order. Jean and Eren were elected to acquire the said good. But before they could get out the door Sasha volunteered to go as well, claiming that they didn’t know what she liked.

 

And although Jean protested that heavily, “That’s bullshit Sash, you will eat literally anything.” She still tucked herself into Eren’s passenger seat and squishing Jean into the backseat.

 

Once the trio got to the store Sasha broke away from the two boys to collect snacks. So Jean and Eren made their way to the beer and wine aisle.

 

Hard liquor had been banned from the house a couple months after the four of them had moved into the apartment. The combination of Eren and Jean’s competitive nature, the need to outdrink the other, and neither holding their liquor well had led to too many nights of ugly crying and vomiting. Which both boys adamantly denied.

 

Nevertheless liquor was banned, and since none of them had ever acquired a taste for beer. Wine it was.

 

“Fuck no! We are not getting that shit again!”

 

Jean’s head jerked in the direction of Eren’s voice. He let his hand fall from where it had been reaching out to pluck a bottle of merlot from the shelf. Huffing he crossed his arms glaring at Eren, “Oh? And what do you want to get then?”

 

The brunet held up two handles of sangria in response. Jean scoffed and reached back for the merlot again.

 

“Seriously? You don’t even like dry wine! You just want to seem cool an’ hipster-y”

 

Eren was not wrong.

 

“Psh. Sangria is way too sweet and gross.” It was a lie. Jean fucking loved sangria. And Eren knew that.

 

But Jean could not let himself be beaten. Even if it meant chugging a bottle of disgusting wine by himself.

 

The fight was beginning to escalate when Sasha found them.

 

“You two sound like middle-class soccer moms.” She said juggling an armful of candy and chips. She eyed Jean’s selection. “Gross Jean. No one likes that shit. Not even you.” The tip of the blond’s ears redden as Eren smirked at him.

 

He slammed the bottle back on the shelf. “God dammit Jaeger. Don’t even say it.” Jean spat out before Eren’s smug face turned into smug words; he shoved his hands in his pockets and made his way to the registers.

 

While he was irritated that he’d been beat by Jaeger, Jean couldn’t help but be somewhat relieved. At least he’d be getting drunk on something palpable.

 

The group was on their third or fourth cup of sangria. The drive back from the store had been quick, and thankfully there was already a bowl ready to go when the three returned. The six circled up, took a couple hits, and then dove into the snacks and wine.

 

The overall mood had mellowed out significantly.

 

Sasha and Mikasa were lounged on the couch sharing a bowl of sour patch kids; below them on the floor Armin sat crossed legged as Mikasa braided his hair in between bites. Jean and Eren had laid out beside one another with an almost empty bottle between them.

 

Connie was babbling on as he packed another bowl. “So you know what I don’t get?”

 

No one bothered to answer; they all knew they’d be told no matter what they said.

 

“Not a single person has backed out of the trip.” He finished up and dug around the coffee table for a lighter.

 

_That’s weird._

 

Jean rolled over and propped himself up on his elbows to get a better look at Connie. Jean watched on as he nonchalantly found a lighter and took a hit, only pausing his ramblings to cough.  

 

Normally when Connie got high, he started to spurt out nonsense. This time around though he had made an intelligent discovery, Jean was so proud.

 

As high as the other was, his profound ramblings were not untrue. Not a single person in the group had ever argued about going on the trip. Sure there were voiced concerns on the exact nature of the expedition, and if there would be adequate time to prepare. But no one had ever said anything about not going.

 

“I mean really, the whole things a bit messed up. Spur of the moment trip to a foreign country, when there’s a good possibility half of us don’t even have a passport. The whole thing is completely paid for, but we have to be ready to leave at the drop of a hat. And on top of all of that we don’t even know what the fuck we’re looking at; I’m telling you we got chosen to be sacrifices.”

 

Jean snorted. _There it is._

 

“Oh Connie no. You were doing so well.” Armin scolded lightly, leaning forward to take the pipe from Connie’s hands.

 

Connie was about to retort, but Mikasa cut him off, “He has a point though.” She took the pipe from Armin after it was offered it to her, “I mean did any of you ever think twice about not accepting the offer? I know I didn’t.”

 

Jean hadn’t either. He had just automatically latched onto the idea. Sure it was a great opportunity and it would look great on his resume, but Connie and Mikasa had a point. The whole thing was very poorly planned and very last second; they didn’t even know how long the trip would last.

 

But it was almost as if he just _had_ to go.

 

No one rebuked Mikasa’s claim and a quiet settled over the group. Everyone was too lost in their own reverie.

 

Eren sat up quickly. For a moment Jean thought Jaeger had cracked the code; then the other started to talk. “I have no idea where my passport is.” He cried jumping to his feet and stumbling towards his room.

 

Well at least he got part of the conversation into his thick skull.

 

Jean took the pipe from Sasha after she was done. He took his own hit and held the smoke in as long as he could. After his coughing died down he passed it off to Connie, “So who else is going with us? I mean I recognized everyone here and the professors at the meeting, but no one else looked that familiar.” It was a partial lie, but he wasn’t about to tell everyone he had spent a good majority of the year eyeing the freckled grad.

 

The sooner he learned the better. After all he’d be spending an indefinite amount of time with these people.

 

Sasha sat up a little, Jean noted that she seemed curious about them as well. Good, that made him feel a little less like a hermit.

 

Armin hummed a little and leaned back against Mikasa’s legs. “I’m not too surprised,” he paused to take a sip out of his drink, “The majority of them were from the geography department. Hmmm, let’s see. There’s Reiner, the big blond guy, he’s the graduate student under Dr. Ackerman. Then Annie, the one who sat next to me, and then Ymir and Krista they sat across from Connie and Sasha. They’re all in the geo department” He finished off his drink before continuing, “Then there’s Marco of course, he’s the grad student under Erwin and also Ymir’s cousin. And Bertholdt’s Dr. Zoe’s grad.”

 

Jean rolled back over onto his back with a groan. “How do you know literally everyone?”

 

“Because some of us actually talk to others, Jean.” Came the sassy remark.

 

Just as he was about to roll back over and throw all the sass right back in Armin’s face, a loud shout came from the other room.

 

“AH HAH!”

 

There was a pause as Eren came stumbling back into the living room. He opened up the small booklet and looked at it a moment before his face dropped. “Aw fuck. My passport just expired.”

 

Jean threw an arm over his eyes and barked out a laugh. This trip was starting wonderfully.

 


	2. Dreams and Batman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, sorry this took so long. I got caught up in school and planning for a dig. Anyway here it is.

Midterms were overshadowed by the impending trip.

Try as he might Jean just couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything that wasn’t related to the expedition. His thoughts bounced between excitement and anxiety; the whole expedition would look good on his resume while being an incredible experience in and of itself. But at the same time there were so many odd circumstances surrounding the trip; and that made him weary. 

He wasn’t the only one. 

He’d gone by Dr. Zoe’s office hours the Monday after the meeting to have them look over some glyphs he had redone. He arrived at their office only to find they had cancelled their office hours; something he had never seen Dr. Zoe do before. Same thing happened to him Wednesday when he went back to try again. He wrote it off as being the week before finals assuming they were just holding extra study sessions during that time instead. As Dr. Zoe would never cancel their office hours. But even then, he still thought it was odd.

That Friday things grew odder still. 

After his last class of the week, which had thankfully just been a review session for the midterm, Jean left campus in a hurry to get home. He skipped out on his weekly, and definitely not creepy, session of staring at Marco from afar; still embarrassed from making an ass of himself the week prior. 

After getting back to the apartment he should’ve had a few hours to himself before everyone else got out of class; his roommates normally didn’t get back until after two. Hearing the lock click and the front door open not ten minutes after twelve was not what Jean was expecting. 

Yet, that’s what he heard. Followed by three, very loud voices coming in and walking straight to the kitchen. Curiosity got Jean up and out of bed. He had decided a nap sounded absolutely amazing after getting back from class around ten; after quickly shedding his jeans he had passed out on top of the covers. A quick stretch popped his back, then he was ready to get up. Pulling on a pair of Captain America pajama bottoms to make himself decent, he made his way down the hall towards the kitchen.

“Good morning Sunshine!” was called from the couch, a quick glance confirmed it to be Connie. Weird. 

Eren had his back turned fiddling with the dials on the oven, “S’that Jean?” he called over his shoulder. 

Sasha made a noise of agreement from her position in front of the fridge, pulling out a packet of cheese from inside. Presumably for the two take-and-bake pizzas on the counter. 

Jean raised an eyebrow, “Don’t you have class right now?” His question cut off with a yawn as he moved to the entryway of the kitchen. He couldn’t help but notice Armin was missing from the newly arrived group; he must’ve stayed on campus. 

“Yeah, we normally have…UGH what are you wearing?” Eren, after finding the settings he wanted on the oven, had turned to answer only to see the Marvel pants Jean was sporting. Yet another feud between the two. 

Jean scoffed, “Only the merchandise of a real superhero.” He crossed his arms, his hip jutting out a bit to empathize his point. 

It was Eren’s turn to scoff then. “I think you’re forgetting the best superhero of them all.” He proclaimed gesturing to his shirt, one of many in his batman collection.

“Dude, Batman isn’t cool. His superpower is money.” Jean smirked, insulting Batman had always been his favorite way to rile Eren up. 

The brunet’s voice was a mixture of anger and disgust, “Did you just disgrace Batman in my presence?” 

“Eren, do we really have to go through this again?” They must’ve missed the click of the door as Mikasa was already coming into the apartment. She threw her keys in the bowl on the entryway table and made her way to the kitchen. 

“The man insulted Batman, Mikasa. BATMAN.” Gesticulating wildly as he spoke. 

She ignored his whining pulling a bottle of water from the fridge and taking a sip. Eren simply pouted and moved to help Sasha add more cheese to the pizzas. 

“Why are you back so early Mikasa?” Sasha had finally looked up from her project, the arrival of the other girl breaking her concentration. 

“Dr. Ackerman canceled class again.” 

“Really? Smith canceled on us too.” Connie called from the living room though his eyes were still locked on the baseball game on TV. 

Jean moved to lean against the breakfast bar across from those in the kitchen. That too was odd, Smith never canceled class. He couldn’t speak for Dr. Ackerman though, but the professor didn’t seem the type to cancel either. 

“Wait, again?” Jean asked looking up at Mikasa. 

“Yeah, he cancelled every class this week.” 

“So did Dr. Smith.” Eren added around a mouthful of cheese. Mikasa swatting his arm before he continued, “Kinda weird that both of them did though.” 

Jean scowled at the counter top thinking; he had thought that Dr. Zoe was just using their time for extra study sessions, but maybe not. If Smith and Ackerman had canceled, it made sense that Dr. Zoe would have canceled as well. 

“Not just them.” The three in the kitchen looked up at him as he interrupted a discussion over midterms. “I kept trying to go by Dr. Zoe’s office hours this week, but they were always canceled. I just thought they were holding extra study sessions.” Behind him Jean heard Connie mute the TV; everyone fell into a speculative thought.  
Sasha turned to put the pizzas in the oven, “Maybe they’re less prepared than we originally thought. I mean we knew they didn’t have much to go on, but canceling classes is a bit much. A whole week set back on the syllabus.” 

A sick, swirling feeling settled in Jean’s gut; his anxiety was rising once more. The idea that the three people leading the trip had absolutely no idea what they were doing made him nauseous. Swallowing a few times to get rid of the thick feeling in his mouth and throat, Jean excused himself and made his way back to his room. 

This time he didn’t collapse on his bed. He laid down gently and curled up hoping to soothe his stomach a bit. He couldn't help but wonder; just what had he gotten himself into.

 

That night was their Friday night study group; over the past two weeks however it had morphed into anything but studying. Now they mostly spent their study time discussing the trip with various levels of excitement. 

Jean had reemerged from his room, stomach much better, after a great deal of yelling and the slam of the front door. 

He eased into the living room quietly. The TV was turned to some old movie from the early 2000’s; the volume had been turned down and the audio was near silent. Mikasa was sitting on the couch with a book open in her lap and a green highlighter in her hand. From where he stood, the book looked like it was on the Maya; so it was likely just some background information for the trip. 

“So what was that all about?” he asked moving around the couch to sit at the opposite end from her. 

Mikasa looked up from her book and locked eyes from the blond, “It’s Pi day.” As confused as he was at that answer, it was the only one he could get out of her. 

It wasn’t too much later that he got a more definite answer.

Connie, Sasha, and Eren returned with multiple pies. At Jean’s raised eyebrow Connie groaned. 

“Dude it’s Pi day! Ya know, March 14th aka 3 14 or pi.” He sounded exasperated at that point; watching Eren as the brunet rolled his eyes, Jean was pretty sure he was the problem.

“Weren’t you the ones who switched from computer science to anthro because it had too much math?” Jean asked amusedly. 

Sasha let out a loud gasp. “Sacrilege Jean? On this the holiest of holidays?” 

“I thought you said National Potato Day was the holiest of holidays.” Mikasa retorted without looking up from her book. Jean, laughing loudly, leaned over to give her a high-five. 

Before either Connie or Sasha could interject, Eren cut in. “So where’s Ar?” he worked about grabbing some plates as he spoke.  
Mikasa hummed in acknowledgement, after marking her place she set her book aside. Leaning forward she grabbed her phone off the table and scrolled through it for a moment. “He texted me a couple of minutes after you left for the store.” Explaining as she continued to scroll through her texts, when she found the one she continued, “He said he was running late and that he was bringing a friend with him.”

Sasha and Connie nearly choked at the news. From his spot on the floor Connie spoke up, “He can’t just spring guests on us!” his declaration was accented with gesticulations of the pipe he was packing. “We barely got enough pie for us, how are we going to ration in another person?” he aimed at Sasha, she only nodded forlornly.

Jean was flabbergasted, “You know this isn’t your house right? Armin is the one who lives here.” he deadpanned. 

An overly exuberant sigh from the kitchen caught Jean’s attention, looking over just in time to see Eren’s slow turn from the cabinets to look onto Sasha with his best bitch-face. He could feel the bickering about to begin, so he tuned them out and turned back to the TV. 

“You’re kidding right? We got nine pies!” The blond’s attention was back after Eren’s outburst. 

“Nine? Why would you get nine, that’s such a weird number. Why not eight or ten?” He glanced over to Mikasa hoping she would have a confused look on her face as well. She didn’t seem to be paying attention having reopened her book and continuing highlighting, save for the small amused smile on her face.

Connie looked up from coffee table, “We had to get one of every flavor.” said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, but nothing came out in the end. Jean couldn’t find it in himself to argue with that logic. 

“These two will be the death of me.” Eren bemoaned from the kitchen, where him and Sasha had still been bickering. 

“Well they gotta be good for something.” Jean called over his shoulder. Smirking he leaned back into the couch, very proud of that comment. Not even the evil eye Connie sent him right after deflated him. 

By the time all the pies were cut and placed on the coffee table, Armin was coming in the door trailed by the small, scary blonde. 

After a round of greetings, Armin moved behind the other blonde and helped her with her coat. “You all remember Annie?” his inquiring was met with a round of acknowledging hums and quiet greetings. 

“Did you see the email from Smith?” 

“There was an email from Smith?” Connie asked around a mouthful of pie. 

“That’d be a no. Yeah, it’s about the next meeting; apparently they still have some planning to do so it’ll be the Thursday after break.” Armin paused to take a bite of his own pie.  
“Did it say anything else?” 

“Just to start on some background research for the area. And to not forget about midterms.” Annie answered for him after he gestured to his full mouth. A collective groan filled the room. 

The rest of the night was spent discussing midterms and various cramming techniques. 

And in the end they had plenty of pie. 

 -------------

Telling Mama and Papa Kirstein was something that had worried him from the beginning. But caught up in the fresh excitement of the expedition and with the turmoil of midterms, telling his parents he’d be going to Central America for an unspecified amount of time, in the jungle no less, had slipped his mind. Any worry he had was replaced with anxiety.

That wasn’t to say that his parents were terrible or unsupportive; no, they were just a tad too clingy. But they were just proud of their baby boy.

He had played out several scenarios in his head when he was deciding exactly how to break the news to his parents. 

The first was very dramatic. He’d burst into his child home through the backdoor and straight into the kitchen. His mother would be cooking at the stove while his father would be reading the paper at the table. 

Without giving them a chance to react, save for a gasp from his mother at the banging door, he’d come out and say it, “Mother, Father, I’ve been drafted onto a mission in the jungles of Mexico.” Of course he’d use ‘drafted’ instead of ‘selected’, it was much more dramatic. Then he’d puff out his chest as his mother fainted and his father removed his reading glasses and cradled his face in one hand. 

Now there were a few flaws in this scenario. The first being that his father did not wear reading glasses, but that was minor. Another was the fact that he did not call his parents ‘mother’ and ‘father’, and were he to they would most likely laugh in his face. The third was the biggest, his mother did not faint easy; the woman had sliced her own finger off once making breakfast. And because she didn’t want to wake her husband or son up, she had then driven herself to the ER. Jean still filed this scenario as a high possibility. 

His second scenario involved a kidnaping and explosions and a…

“Jeanbo?” 

Jean’s head snapped up from his plate both his parents were staring at him with confused, a slightly amused, faces. 

“Uhhhh.”

“I asked if you wanted some more eggs.” His mother was standing next to him with a frying pan full of scrambled eggs. 

The blond’s cheeks tinged pink as he nodded slightly; he’d be very lost imagining a gunfight breaking out in the middle of their breakfast. With soldiers then kidnapping him for his archaeology skills, but that was definitely the least likely way for him to tell his parents. 

“What’s on your mind, son?” Mr. Kirstein asked from across the table, one eyebrow raised. 

This was his moment. 

He’d been compiling stories and making scripts in his head for weeks now. Now all that needed to be done was to wow the parents and stun them with his wordsmith skills. A deep breath later, Jean was pleading his case. 

All that came out was a mess of word vomit with the key words: archaeology, Maya, and Dr. Smith; and a bunch of wild gesticulation. 

His previously pink blush had darkened to a crimson once he regained control of his mouth and quieted. There was definitely a reason he had not majored in English. Words were not his thing.

Settling back in his chair, Jean prepared himself for the backlash. 

He’d honestly expected his parents to say he couldn’t go. They had never had any trouble telling him no before; like when he wanted a puppy or when he had wanted to join some of the other boys on a camping trip. But now both his mother and his father just beamed at him, and his mother declared she would be making his favorite for dinner.

Like she hadn’t be planning on it anyway. _Psh_ , Jean knew better than that.

He couldn’t help but smile as his dad’s chest puffed out with pride and his mother wrapped him up in a tight hug and covering his head in kisses. 

The rest of the day was excellent, a perfect way to kick off his spring break. His father paraded around all day excited to be able to tell off Anderson in the office the following day, 

“Oh your kid won the second grade spelling bee? My kid got hand selected to study the Maya in Mexico. Kirstein for the win.” 

His mother first called everyone she could think of to brag about his ‘little Jeanbo’ and how he was growing up. After she finished that, she was in a flurry making sure to grab all his important paperwork she thought he’d need. “Oh I’m so glad we went to Germany last year to visit your Oma and Opa! Here’s your passport all good to go.” It was nice that he didn’t have to fight his parents on the matter. 

But he was still suspicious. 

Everything seemed just a bit too easy. Though his suspicions dwindled after firsts, seconds, and an insisted thirds of dinner. 

He’d drop the matter for now; he just wanted to relax for the week before having to jump back into the craziness. After a little TV time with his parents, Jean declared he was going to bed and went to his room for the evening. 

Though it wasn’t until much later that he actually went to sleep. 

 

He was walking. Though for how long or how far he wasn’t sure. But nothing was aching and every fiber of his being was telling him to just keep moving, so he did. There wasn’t a clear path; no footprints, no broken twigs or anything to indicate what way was the right way. Only a feeling in the depths of his abdomen like a rope was pulling him down the right path.

Everything had been blurry in the beginning. When he’d first realized he was moving that was all he could focus on. There was no scenery to speak of, but now his surroundings were bleeding from monochromatic blurs into shapes and objects. And it was growing harder to breathe now. 

The air was thick, coating his lungs with every breath he drew. A heavy petrichor and a deep earthy aroma blended together with every inhale. Now he was beginning to notice the surroundings. He was in a forest. Or maybe it was a jungle; the trees and underbrush looked foreign and the air was so moist, unlike any forest he’d been in back home. Looking up he could hardly see any sky, the canopy was crowded with branches that refused to let much light shine through. 

From the few, sparse spaces of sky he could only assume twilight was beginning soon. In minutes the world would be black. 

The further he walked the bigger the trees became. Thin, wiry trunks grew to be large and spectacular; utterly dwarfing him in comparison. Ceiba trees. He was absolutely sure that each of the enormous trees was a ceiba; even though he had never seen one before. 

The longer he passed through the jungle of ceibas, the more oddities he noticed; such as the fact that every single tree grew straight up and down. While he was by no means a botanist, he was pretty sure trees normally leaned, at least a little, to get to the nearest source of light. He could write that off though, maybe the sun was always high in the sky here. It was definitely hot enough; his shirt was sticking to his back now. 

Upon looking up and down the massive trunks, he also noticed many of the trees were covered with moss. At least the sides facing him were. 

He must be walking South. 

_Odd._

A scream echoed through the trees. He couldn’t tell if it came from the East or West; but it sounded distressed and scared. He picked up his pace a little.

He continued on for a while, and everything was relatively quiet. Good, he’d gotten away from the danger. Or so he thought until he heard the thrumming begin. 

Once. Then twice. And then steadily. 

There was the sound of a beating drum raging in the distance. For a moment he thought it might just be his heartbeat pounding, but as the noise grew closer he could hear the different octaves from multiple instruments beating together as one. The pounding of blood in his ears only added to the cacophony. 

He needed out. Fast.

The noise was getting closer, the beat was picking up.

His body felt heavy, but he forced himself to keep moving. He needed to get away.

The trees were getting denser, roots curled together making sure any path was difficult to navigate. But the pulling in his abdomen kept him steadily moving forward. He swerved between the moss covered trucks heading South still. 

_Buuuummmm. Buuummmm._

The sound echoed around him. 

Over the deep base of the drums he could hear cries of people. Hunters. This was a hunt, they were hunting him. And they were doing a damn good job of it. 

It was getting harder to breathe; the air was too thick, too hot, too wet. He was almost swimming through the air, but his legs kept moving. They had to keep moving.

The drums were getting closer. He needed to hurry. 

Trees blurred as he ran past them; and on the edges of his peripherals he could see eyes watching him run from the beating drums. Watching from between the giant trunks and underneath thick sprawling roots, these eyes watched unblinking. He turned his head slightly to get a better look at the eyes; he couldn’t see any bodies connected just giant, goggle eyes watching him. 

A dart flew past his ear and hit the tree in front of him. From behind he heard the anguished cry of a hunter missing his target. He kept his attention forward then. 

They were closing in, from all sides but one. Forward, he needed to keep moving forward.  
Trunks, roots, and vines grew denser. Everything was closing in; he felt claustrophobic, but he kept on weaving through the obstacles. 

He could see the tree line in the distance. It was light on the other side of the trees; casting the distance between him and safety in a yellow glow. He blocked out the drums beating, he blocked out the unblinking eyes, and he blocked out the darts hitting trunks all around him. He was so close, the tree line was right there. But he didn’t see the root, too focused on his escape. And that was his downfall.

So close. His foot hit and entangled in the underbrush. 

So close. He tripped and tumbled. 

He had been so close. Toppling down an incline, slowly picking up speed; cuts were forming on his arms and face as vines and twigs ripped at flesh. He screamed and then he was falling straight down.

_Into the gaping monster maw._

 

Jean awoke with a gasp. 

“Shit that was fucked up.” He murmured through panting breaths. His heart was beating rapidly, almost in tangent with the drums. He sat up; there was no way he was going back to sleep after that dream. 

He stretched his arms and back a bit before looking over at his alarm clock, it was about nine or so a perfectly fine time to get up. Good, he wouldn’t have to make up an excuse for his mother; because he was definitely not going to tell her he had a bad dream. Last time he did that he found a nightlight plugged in his room the following evening. 

His morning routine was doing little to erase the drum beats and eyes from his mind. The large, unblinking eyes when burning themselves into his psyche; shuddering he kept getting ready.

Throughout the day he just attributed the dream to stress and being in a different bed. As uncomfortable as his bed back in his apartment was, he’d grow very used to it. 

His break ended all too quickly for his liking. He made sure to give both parents an extra-long hug before he left to return to school.

There was no telling when he would see them next.

\------------- 

Now that he was back at school and midterms were done and over he could feel the apathy of the second half of the semester begin to engulf him. He’d been back a total of four days and already he’d been late for four classes and skipped his fifth. 

His apathetic mood only went so far however, as anything involving the dig had his full attention. And he would not let Eren outshine him there. So on Thursday he was ready. 

He made sure to be early this time. Yes he had sprinted from the Trinity building. And yes, he may have knocked down a group of sorority girls. But dammit he was seven minutes early to this meeting and he was going to rub it in Jaeger’s face when the brunet walked through the door.

“God, late again Kirstein.”

God. Dammit. Jaeger. 

“I’m not even late.” He grit through his teeth

“If you get here after me, you’re late.” 

Jean just couldn’t win. One day, one day. Maybe.

Though he had beaten the majority of the others; out of the fifteen going on the trip only five were in the room. The count went up to six when Jean crossed the threshold. 

Shit. Coming early had been a bad idea. There was now the anxiety of deciding where to sit. He’d normally just go sit down next to Eren, as the brunet was the only one he knew there. But Jaeger was sitting at the very end of the table in the same seat as the last meeting, and next to him was Marco. Next to Marco was the small blonde, Krista if he remembered correctly; and he was pretty sure the scary freckled chick was going to want to sit next to her. And skipping a seat would put him farther from someone he knew and closer to Ymir. So no, no thank you.

Across the table, sat across from Eren and Marco were the two guys that had been talking to Dr. Ackerman and Dr. Zoe last time. Both were large and intimidating; so again no, not there either. Maybe he should just set his bag down and hide in the bathroom until more people arrived. 

Shit, just how long had he been standing in the doorway like an idiot. From the bemused looks on everyone’s faces, he’d have to say a while. Dammit. Yet another strike against him in his quest to impress His Freckled Majesty. 

He was about to go with plan A, hiding in the bathroom, when the big blond made his seating decision for him. 

Reiner rolled back the chair next to him, “Right here man!” he called out to Jean smiling. 

There was no escaping now, Jean made his way over and plopped down in the seat. Just as soon as he had there was a large hand in his face. He reached out with his own and shook it. Instantly regretting as he was caught in a death grip.

“Reiner Braun!” the large blond introduced. “And this is boyfriend.” He nodded towards the boy sitting on his other side.

“Bertholdt Hoover.” The boy murmured in response. 

“Jean Kirstein.” The death grip was gone, and Jean could feel blond returning to his hand. 

“Oh. You must be the one working on the thesis about Mayan Mythology and Writing.” Bertholdt once more leaned around Reiner to speak to Jean. He was curious as to how Bertholdt would now that, “Hanji…er Dr. Zoe talks about you a lot.” 

Jean’s ears were burning now; he couldn’t imagine why they would be talking about him of all people. He got even redder as Bertholdt continued. 

“They said your work is pretty advanced.” 

He really just wanted to melt into the floor about now, but a loud laugh from across the table grounded him. 

“Ha! You’re looking like a cherry Jean.” Eren laughed. 

Jean sputtered; and as much as he wanted to make an angry remark, he kept his mouth closed knowing it would end in stuttered babbles. Thankfully, he was saved by another group member walking in; surprisingly enough it was scary, freckled chick. 

She made a bee-line for the small blonde; she threw her bag into the chair next to her and leaned down to kiss her. A quick peck and she stood back up. 

“I missed you in Quantitative Methods, Krista.” The freckled chick put her hands on the blonde’s or Krista’s, Jean was reminded, shoulders. 

Next to Krista, Marco grinned “Well Ymir, if you hadn’t failed last semester you wouldn’t have that problem.” He bite his tongue holding back his snickering; Eren behind him tried to do the same. 

“Hey. No one asked you.” Ymir leaned over to smack both Marco an Eren on the head before settling down in the seat next to Krista; the two girls then leaned in to talk quietly to each other. 

Having been caught up in the scene across the table from him, Jean hadn’t noticed the next person enter the room. 

“Oh hey Annie.” Jean glanced to his right at Reiner, curious as to why he had called him Annie. But Reiner wasn’t looking at him, rather he was looking over him. Jean jumped when he looked to the left, Annie was sitting in the chair directly next to him like she’d been there the whole time. Reiner laughed clapping him on the shoulder, “She’s a ninja man!”

She smirked, not denying the statement. 

Dr. Ackerman was the first professor to show up. He didn’t acknowledge any of the students in the room as he sat down in an end seat near the head of the table. He did have a stack of envelopes with him that laid face down on the table. Curiosity spiked in the blond archaeologist; he really wanted to know what was in those envelopes. And were Jean a braver man, he might’ve asked the professor what was in them. 

A trio of Connie, Sasha, and Connie arrived next. Mikasa took the seat across from Dr. Ackerman at the end of the table and Sasha took the one next to her. Not wanting to leave his girlfriend, or risk offending Ymir, Connie quickly took the empty seat. 

With two minutes to spare, Dr. Zoe and Armin entered the room speaking avidly. Once more, Jean couldn’t help but notice the stack that Dr. Zoe had tucked under their arm. They sat down next to Dr. Ackerman; set their stack upside down next to the other professor’s and continued speaking to Armin. 

Dr. Smith was the last to arrive; walking straight to the other two professor and leaning down to converse quietly. Slowly, all other conversations in the room died down; Professor Smith had sat down at the head of the table and taken the other two stacks of packets to add to his own. It was a few minutes passed the hour before they began. 

Dr. Smith stood once more at the front of the room holding the stack of thick packets. Before he began however he walked around the tabled passing them out; after Jean received his, he set it in front of him and waited. As much as he wanted to rip the envelope open and peer inside, he restrained himself like everyone else. 

“These contain the basic information for the trip as well as group details and your personal duties.” Dr. Smith paused while those around the table, excluding the other two professors, opened their envelopes and skimmed through their packets. For having so little information about the site itself, the packets were surprisingly thick. “Since our knowledge of the site is scarce, we want to make sure we have all possible angles covered.” 

“We will be breaking up into three groups of five, each lead by either myself, Dr. Ackerman, or Dr. Zoe; with one of our graduate students being the next in charge. That’s not to say we won’t be breaking up into smaller groups or switching people around, but for initial survey purposes and basic daily operations these will be our groups.” Dr. Smith turned from the group and walked over to the projector screen at the front. With a swift, fluid motion he tugged the bottom of the screen and it snapped back into the case hung from the ceiling. It didn’t even snag once. 

Behind the projector screen was a whiteboard fixed to the wall; reaching into his pocket Dr. Smith pulled out a black dry erase marker. He uncapped the marker and looked back at the group over his shoulder, “Alright, group one with be led by myself with Mr. Bodt as my graduate student.” As he spoke Dr. Smith wrote ‘Group 1’, ‘Group 2’, and ‘Group 3’ in slanted, cluttered handwriting. Beneath ‘Group one’ he wrote ‘Smith’ and underneath that ‘Marco’. 

Jean held his breath. Beneath the table he crossed his fingers; he wanted on that team. 

Dr. Smith took a few steps back to the table and rifled through the stack of papers there; when he found the one he wanted. “The rest of group one will consist of, Sasha Blaus, Jean Kirstein, and Eren Jaeger.” He added the names to the board as he read them off the paper. 

Outwardly, Jean kept a collected appearance, nodding slightly after his name had been called in acknowledgment. Internally, however, he was celebrating; but any and all of Jean’s inner cheering was quickly stemmed when Eren’s name followed his.

He really just couldn’t win. 

Dr. Smith continued, “Group 2 will be led by Dr. Ackerman with Mr. Braun as his graduate student. The team will consist of Annie Leonhart, Krista Lenz, and Ymir..um..” Dr. Smith trailed off instead choosing to just write the last-name on the board. Across the table, Ymir and Marco both snickered; there was absolutely no way Dr. Smith would even be able to pronounce her full name.

The professor clear his throat embarrassed, “And finally Group three led by Dr. Zoe. Mr. Hoover will be their graduate student and Armin Arlert, Mikasa Ackerman, and Connie Springer will be the undergraduate portion.” 

Smith returned to the table and set down the marker. Picking up his own packet, he flipped through a few pages before continuing. 

“Who here feels they know sufficient knowledge on the Maya in some form or another?” Dr. Smith asked. 

Only a few people around the table raised their hands; Jean, Marco, Eren, Bertholdt, Connie, and Sasha held their hands up for the Professor to see. 

Jean raised an eyebrow when he noticed Connie and Sasha had their hands up. He was a bit surprised by Eren as well, but then again that boy had a gift in obsessing.

Professor Ackerman made a distasteful face. “Tch, watching Apocalypto doesn’t count.” He ground out angrily. 

Connie, Sasha, and Eren all lowered their hands sheepishly. Jean resisted the urge to snort. 

“Within the packets are some generalized attributes and themes common to the Mayan, for those unfamiliar.” He paused looking up at the three whose hands had gone down with a small smirk. “These will be some of the first things we’ll look for in the initial survey. That is after the site has been cleared.” And though Dr. Smith didn’t explicitly say it, there was an understood ‘if there’s a site’.

The meeting capped off after a small overview of the packet and the announcement of another meeting in the near future. Dr. Smith expressed the importance of the individual tasks assigned to each person, and after that they were free to go. 

\------------- 

“This is shit and you know it Erwin.” 

Jean’s original plan had not been to eavesdrop at Professor Zoe’s door, but after Dr. Ackerman’s eloquent accusation how could he not. Though he had wanted to get Dr. Zoe to look over some of his glyph sketches, he deemed the information to be just as important to him. 

“Tch. You and I both know it should be the three of us and a guide going. That’s it.”

“The instructions from the donor were very explicit. The university is going out of their way to make sure the plans are followed to a T. Hanji did you find anything?” 

“Yes. I looked back through some university records, this isn’t the first time they’ve been asked to dig in this area. Back in the late 1970’s they had a similar request.” They sounded serious. Anytime he’d heard them speak seriously before, it’d been laced in humor and excitement. But now it was only an eerie calm. “The university turned them down at the time.” 

“Okay if the university turned them down then, why aren’t they turning them down now?” 

“There wasn’t an anthropology or archaeology department at this school until 1987.” 

Jean sucked in a breath. Just what the fuck was going on. 

His action didn’t go unnoticed. The voices inside the office quieted and after some shuffling the door flew open. He jumped back as Dr. Ackerman appeared in the door frame. 

“What are you doing here?” The professor growled. 

The blonde couldn’t get his tongue to work properly; excuses came out as babbles. Dr. Zoe saved him in the end. 

“I’m helping him with his thesis, Levi.” They replied happily from their desk. 

Dr. Smith moved into the frame and put a hand on Dr. Ackerman’s shoulder. “We were just leaving. We’ll talk later Hanji.” He walked as he spoke and soon both he and Dr. Ackerman had disappeared down the hall leaving Jean slack-jawed at Dr. Zoe’s door.  


“Well, come in.” They called out amused to the stunned boy. Jean snapped to it and stumbled into their office, and once in he dumbly handed his pages over to the professor. They took them without question and began to look over the glyphs. All the while Jean was sweating bullets hoping that Dr. Zoe wasn’t going to call him on his eavesdropping. There was no way they didn’t know that that was exactly what he was doing. 

His mind was running through various scenarios of what was going to happen to him for his transgression. Most involved the shortest of the three professor and something along the lines of a permanent limp. He was called back into the real world when he realized Dr. Zoe had been talking to him for a while now. 

“These are very good Jean! The precision in these here are outstanding.” They chattered pointing out various signs along the page. The tips of his ears grew hot, and he was beginning to think he was in the clear as they handed back the pages. 

“Oh there is one more thing.” Their voice was back to the eerie calm he had heard through the door earlier. Shit. “I want you to have this.” They handed him an older leather bound book. It was obviously well-loved over the years; various pages were book-marked and the spine was worn. 

“Um thank you?” 

“You’re birthday is tomorrow right. April 7th.” They asked, though it came out more as a statement. “This is a volume used by multiple Mayanists; I think you’ll find it useful.”

“Yeah, thank you Professor.” Though excited, he was still a tad confused as he left their office. He walked down the hall towards the stairwell inspecting his new book. 

Jean opened the volume up to one of the marked pages and his blood ran cold.

 

All there was a drawing of a ceiba tree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any comments or questions you can send to my fandom blog http://captainsoywha.tumblr.com/
> 
> Also if you're wondering where all the jeanmarco interaction is, it's coming in chapter three. I originally had a scene in this chapter, but I didn't like how it flowed.

**Author's Note:**

> Again, any confusion on anything just ask. Sometimes I forget what's jargon and what's not. If anyone's curious, I have a ton of head-canons and fun-facts for this verse, just stop by tumblr. 
> 
>  
> 
> Comments and kudos are much loved and appreciated.


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